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Frack Free Ellesmere Port & Upton (FFEP&U) issued their ‘Proof of Evidence’ from nine expert witnesses, to the Government Planning Inspector, ahead of the Public Inquiry. The inquiry will be held in Chester Town Hall from the 15thuntil the 23rdJanuary 2019.

Frack Free Ellesmere Port & Upton (FFEP&U) issued their ‘Proof of Evidence’ from nine expert witnesses, to the Government Planning Inspector, ahead of the Public Inquiry. The inquiry will be held in Chester Town Hall from the 15thuntil the 23rdJanuary 2019.

FFEP&U are supporting Cheshire West and Chester Council (CW&C) in their defence of the planning committee decision to refuse IGas planning permission to flow test their well in Ellesmere Port. The grounds for their refusal were that it “fails to mitigate and adapt to climate change” and “ensuring best use of renewable energy use and generation”.

Chester and its surrounding villages sits on top of the “Blacon Basin”, the thickest, shallowest chunk of shale in Cheshire, and is the target of the Shale Gas industry, as can be seen by this diagram.

Life in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire is at a critical point. The community will make a giant step forward with the planned regeneration of the Waterside area, but if IGas is allowed to succeed with its proposals to test for Shale Gas it will mean two giant steps backward for Ellesmere Port.

5,000 residents who live within one kilometre of the well site in Portside North in Ellesmere Port have been made aware of the following facts in a leaflet –

IGas has appealed against the Council’s decision to refuse permission to test the existing well at Portside North.

IGas will pump Hydrochloric Acid and other chemicals underground to open pathways within the rock for gas to flow, bringing similar risks to those of fracking.

Over 10 tonnes of gas could be flared off each day. Flaring is both polluting and very noisy and may continue for 24hrs per day for up to 90 days.

These facts have come as a great shock to a vast percentage of residents of Ellesmere Port but particularly to the residents of the brand new Persimmon & Anwyl estate off Rossmore Road. They were NEVER informed that their properties are only 350metres from the well site.

I Gas seem keen to keep us busy. This is the most information they have sent us. It’s a shame they couldn’t have provided this much information with the original application. We tried to be a bit more specific with ours and sent through two lever arch files, which puts across our case, but doesn’t run the risk of letting any important information being buried elsewhere.